The American tropics; . Tropics near the shore, could be seen crawling likeants over the crumbling walls already greenwith a luxuriant vegetation of less than fiveyears. On landing in small boats on an ex-temporized wharf, we were brought in im-mediate contact with and could appreciatemore vividly, the effect of this cataclysm ofnature. The city of St. Pierre occupied aplain but slightly elevated above the sea, ex-tending backward less than a mile, and notmore than twice this distance along the are high hills and mountains,some of the former green with sugar cane al-though no
The American tropics; . Tropics near the shore, could be seen crawling likeants over the crumbling walls already greenwith a luxuriant vegetation of less than fiveyears. On landing in small boats on an ex-temporized wharf, we were brought in im-mediate contact with and could appreciatemore vividly, the effect of this cataclysm ofnature. The city of St. Pierre occupied aplain but slightly elevated above the sea, ex-tending backward less than a mile, and notmore than twice this distance along the are high hills and mountains,some of the former green with sugar cane al-though not a habitation was in sight. To theleft, about nine or ten miles away, the cloud-capped volcano of Pelee arose in majesticgrandeur. Little effort has been made at re-habitation. A few of the streets have beencleared and show the square stone pave-ment, gutters and narrow sidewalks. Thehouses stood directly on the street, compact-ly built of brick, cobblestones and the beach the warehouses stood, and the [50]. A Midwinter Cruise square block pavement extends to the wa-ters edge. Here and there are large ironrings for the mooring of ships, together withposts, made by sinking the breech ends of can-non barrels into the earth. The latter serveas firmer fastenings for larger craft. Evenof the larger buildings few retain any fea-tures by which they may be recognized. TheCathedral, however, presents a facade com-prising the arched doorway and a portion ofthe outer walls. The Jardin des Plantes isburied under cinders and overgrown withrank vegetation. No trees are left, but hereand there a half-burned trunk tells of the in-tense heat which accompanied the downfallof ashes, cinders and stones. The story ofthe eruption was told by but few eye-wit-nesses, because but few survived. MontPelee had the habit of acting queerly attimes, but not for a life-time had any erup-tion occurred sufficiently serious to endangerthe inhabitants of St. Pierre. For some weeks the mountain had be
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidamericantrop, bookyear1908
